The sceptic

The slogan for my wristband? "Make bullshit history". And I welcome to the struggle a group of Germans carrying sharp needles and giving out misleading instructions.

A Munich-based complementary-medicine research centre recruited people complaining of frequent headaches. Three treatments were offered, two of them acupuncture. One type of acupuncture followed traditional Chinese principles. "The other type," sufferers were told, did "not follow the principles of traditional Chinese medicine, but [it] has also been associated with positive outcomes in clinical studies."

The headaches must have been too blinding for them to have recognised such a great description of a placebo. Several hundred entered the trial. Those who were needled in the Chinese manner - by highly trained veteran acupuncturists, all aiming to achieve an irradiating feeling of "de qi" - experienced great benefit. The number of days spoilt by pounding headaches dropped away considerably.

Those who underwent a treatment of sham acupuncture were looked after by the same practitioners. With equal skill and familiarity they shoved needles in flesh as far from recognised acupuncture points as possible. Any feeling of reaching "de qi" was vigorously avoided. The benefits were the same.

Both placebos and acupuncture are sanctified by a long history of use. Could the researchers come up with something equally traditional for the third arm of the trial? They could, but they had to draw their inspiration from Britain rather than China: they put the remaining patients on a waiting list and did nothing. It didn't work. People don't like queues and they don't like needles, but it seems they're willing to accept the second as a good placebo. If it hurts, after all, it must be doing some good.

All the patients in this trial suffered from tension headaches. It might be the case that a feeling of "de qi" is just the thing to get rid of a different headache such as a migraine (although that prospect has to seem less likely than it did before). Nevertheless, it's nice to see this recent study (British Medical Journal, August 13) giving us a rare fragment of reliable evidence with which to judge acupuncture. If only the authors had managed to avoid those deliberately misleading words "complementary" and "alternative". Let's be willing to properly test any treatment that might possibly work. If it does, let's name it a medicine. If it doesn't, we'll call it fraud. Bring on those wristbands.

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About this article

The sceptic

This article appeared on p25 of the G2 section of the Guardian
on Wednesday 5 October 2005.
It was published on
the Guardian website
at 11.25 EDT on Thursday 6 October 2005.
It was last modified at 11.25 EST on Thursday 3 November 2005.
It was first published at 11.25 EST on Thursday 3 November 2005.